Supporting social and emotional health
in early childhood

The SEED Educational Program

Dr Claire Blewitt and Professor Helen Skouteris developed the Social-Emotional Engagement and Development (SEED) educational program as part of Claire’s PhD thesis.

SEED was co-designed for educators working with young children with low- and high-risk of social-emotional difficulties, including children with mental health and developmental challenges, in partnership with not-for-profit organisation bestchance. It’s a comprehensive online learning tool that aims to strengthen educators’ expertise in fostering children's social-emotional skills. Ten interactive modules offer evidence-based and tailored strategies that educators can embed into their early learning environment and teacher-child interactions.

SEED was developed using Intervention Mapping methodology and since 2019, has been offered to Victorian kindergartens through the Department of Education and Training’s School Readiness Funding scheme. It was awarded one of the highest ‘strength of evidence’ rankings of all educational programs included in the initiative. Dr Blewitt, who leads the project, and Professor Skouteris have continued working with bestchance to further build and strengthen the evidence base for SEED.

Voice of Children

Dr Blewitt and Yihan Sun partnered with Dr Alexandra Fraser, Julia Cornelius  and Jessica O’Donnell from Our Place to capture the perspectives of young children (aged 4 to 5 years) regarding their experiences at kindergarten, sense of self, and aspirations for the future.

Our Place is a holistic place-based approach to supporting the education, health and development of children and families experiencing disadvantaged through the universal platform of school. Working with children, their caregivers and educators, we interviewed 99 preschoolers at eight sites across Victoria in 2022/23.

Our approach was informed by a systematic literature review that explored how children’s voices have been captured in research and how issues such as inclusivity, rapport-building, and power imbalances were addressed. Child-led, play-based interviews and individualised data collection methods supported all children to take part, including children with additional needs who are often not included in early years research.

This work highlights the important and meaningful perspectives that young children can offer. Our Place and HSCU are sharing what we have learned about the child-centred research that can promote children’s agency in research and strengthen understanding of the effectiveness and impact of interventions.

Parent Voice Project

The Health and Social Care Unit, led by Dr Blewitt is supporting Our Place to capture the voice of parents and caregivers across nine Our Place sites in Victoria. This project aims to understand, from parents and caregivers’ perspective and experiences, the extent to which the outcomes and indicators in the Our Place Outcomes Framework are being realised. The insights and feedback collected from parents relates to their child’s move into school from early learning, engagement in learning and social opportunities, and expectations for the future, families’ use of services and supports, engagement in their child’s education, wellbeing and confidence in their parenting skills, and feelings of belonging and connection to people, services and supports at an Our Place site. Through this work which will continue in 2024, Our Place are gaining a deeper understanding of how the approach directly impacts children, families, and communities as well as areas that may require additional focus.